As I mentioned last Tuesday, in my first article in the column on reentry ("The politicians like to tout 3 strikes policies and “get tough on crime” which overlooks the fact that the people we incarcerate come from families, and communities, and unless they die in prison, they all come back. Currently, they come back at the rate of 630,000 per year in the United States, that’s about 1,700 per day. In New York State there are 36,500 formerly incarcerated people on parole and several thousand more on probation. How are they treated when they return home? How do you treat them?") most of the millions of people we have incarcerated in the United States come back home, unless they die in prison, at the rate of about 630,000 per year. Jeremy Travis in his book "But They All Come Back" raises a fundamental question which is, "Does the state have a responsibility to minimize the harmful effects of the transition from prison to community? One answer might be no - the risks of failure are borne entirely by the prisoner, his family, his social network, and the public at large."
Currently a huge number of offenders are returned to prison while on parole for technical violations swelling our prison populations which makes one wonder how good a job we are doing as a society in helping formerly incarcerated people with community adjustment. It has been my experience as a mentor for formerly incarcerated people coming out of prison that our society places tremendous barriers and obstacles in the path of formerly incarcerated people in their attempt at community re-integration. Rather than help, many of our parole regulations, social welfare regulations, stigma against hiring, housing, and providing opportunities for a "normal" community life, increase the likelihood or re-incarceration, not decrease it.
Most Americans, New Yorkers, and Brockporters have no idea what formerly incarcerated people face because we have closed our eyes to the realities out of our fears. Travis writes:
"In short, our legislators, acting in our name through a series of reforms large and small, have dramatically transformed our justice system over the last quarter-century. Unfortunately, this transformation has largely ocurred out of public sight, as we have constructed a hidden world of punishment. Accordingly, the first step in reclaiming our justice system is to foster a public discussion about the current realities of punishment in America, particularly as experienced by millions of prisoners, their families, and the communities to which they return." p.5
The Brockporter will be publishing an article on reentry and our criminal justice system almost every Thursday. If you ask "what does this topic have to do with me" you might consider that New York States Department of Corrections and Criminal Supervision budget is over 3 billion dollars a year. It costs over $60,000.00 per year to keep a person in prison in New York State and over $70.00 per day in Monroe County Jail or about $30,000.00 per year. Is this a good use of our tax dollars? Is the system humane and morally right? It is the firm belief of myself and many experts that there are much better ways of dealing with the criminal problems in our society. I hope you will read along, reflect, and add your own thoughts, ideas, and recommendations to the discussion in the comments, and if you have an article you would like to submit for this feature send it to davidgmarkham@gmail.com
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